How to Get Away With Murder Fall Finale Recap: Some Like Her Shot

How to Get Away With Murder‘s steely protagonist has been bleeding out on the floor of her clients’ mansion for nine weeks’ worth of Season 2 flash-forwards, and yet there are still at least a dozen frenemies/minions/clients/enemies who could’ve put that bullet in her chest.

I mean, wouldn’t you like to think if you were in her shoes — provided you haven’t been the subject of a 48 Hours: Mysteries segment — that there’d be only one or two (OK, maybe three or four at best) potential suspects? (Top of my list: The lady I dressed down at Pinkberry that one time for cussing out her friendly neighborhood yogurt cashier.)

The good news for Annalise is, in the Season 2 fall finale — ominously entitled “What Did We Do?” — we finally learn whodunnit (and even a little bit of whydunnit). Who shot Annalise? Who killed ADA Emily “She Had It Comin'” Sinclar? How does Catherine wind up slung over Frank’s strong shoulders? (To misquote Taylor Swift, I knew she was trouble when she walked in.) And (to a tiny degree) what is the Annalise-Wes connection?

Before I spill that tea, let’s reveal some of the other crazy goings-on from the hour:

* After Sinclair leaks to the press all the dirt Annalise uncovered about him, Asher’s father hangs himself in his office.

* When Catherine disappears (after learning the gun — her gun? — has been discovered in the heating vent), Annalise decides she can only represent one of the Hapstall siblings — and she chooses Caleb (since he doesn’t have a creepy connection to creepy Philip… and also didn’t flee in a cloud of guilt).

* Like a cat to her master, Bonnie arrives at Casa Hapstall with a present in her trunk for Annalise: Sinclair’s lifeless body, wrapped in a flannel blanket. Turns out, the ADA taunted Asher by saying his father deserved what happened to him — for covering up Tiffany’s rape — and he puts his car in reverse, backs that thing up (hard!) and leaves her under his vehicle for a full 30 minutes before Lurky McChurchmouse comes and saves the day. (Or as much of the day as you can save when rigor mortis has begun to set in on the ADA.)

* Annalise decides that to protect Nate — who blew up at Emily in the middle of the police precinct earlier in the day, and will inevitably look like a suspect — she needs to make it look as though Catherine murdered Sinclair at the Hapstall mansion. Connor and Michaela help Bonnie and Asher carry Emily’s corpse up several flights, before deciding the whole plan is too too insane.

“SPLAT!” Bonnie and Asher drop Sinclair over the balcony to her second death of the night, Bonnie threatens Connor he’ll be next if he backs out, Asher remains unconvinced that the drop would produce the same injuries as his car, and Annalise leaves a long “Come back to the house” message on Catherine’s phone (because our protagonist LOVES a dramatic voice mail to help confuse the authorities).

* Keating knows her message is folly. She’s tried to create a sense of chaos at the mansion, but her plan is unravelling. Frank has tracked Catherine down to a hotel, and just before Philip arrives, he subdues Ms. Hapstall by the soda machine — with a cloth over her mouth — then drugs her with the pills Annalise procured for the deceased Nia. (We can assume his next stop is the forest clearing where Catherine snapped back to consciousness in a prior flash-forward.)

* Asher and Bonnie stop at a gas station, where Bonnie disposes of her bloody blouse and the duo send their vehicle through the car wash.

* Philip — unable to locate Catherine — heads to the mansion to see if he can find her there.

* Annalise goes back there, too — and gives an Emmy-worthy performance as Wes, Michaela, Laurel and Connor watch her. She dials 911, says Catherine shot her, adds that Sinclair is on the scene, and then one by one, tries to get one of her students to shoot her. “In my leg! All right! I’ll be fine!” She threatens Connor that she’ll hurt Oliver, begs Laurel to do something that’s no worse than what’s gone down in her own family, but no one will bite. “Rebecca’s dead, Wes! I made it up that she ran away. She’s been dead this whole time. When you were crying on my lap, every time you’ve asked me, she’s been dead. I’ve been lying to you, over and over. I deserve it. Shoot me!” Annalise finally shouts. And BAM — that pistol isn’t aimed at her lower half, it goes right through her stomach. Wes — you’re starting to make a habit of this homicide-adjacent-type situation.

* “Christoph! Christoph! Christoph! Christoph!” Annalise whispers, pleading as Wes surveys what he’s done. And finally, we get a flashback to a grade-school-age Wes — in an interrogation room — as a young Annalise and Eve listen in. Wes is telling the detective he was pretty sure his mother was already dead when he discovered her. He seems almost annoyed by the questioning. “Good God Annalise,” Eve asks, “What did we do?”

That’s a question for the latter half of Season 2, I suspect. Until then, your turn. What did you think of HTGAWM‘s fall finale? Take our poll below, then share your thoughts in the comments!